any teachers - benefit question

[Tiggeroo]

I'm finishing up my teaching degree in NJ. I have a question. I will have some student loan debt and am considering working in an at-risk school district in order to get some loan forgiveness. If i do this for the required time and then transfer to a district I live closer to and prefer does my accumulate benefit time transfer with me. Ex. you need x amount of years to have certain health benefits on retirement.
I am a non-traditional student and won't be 21 when starting out so this matters. Does it matter if I stay within the same state? If I do not stay in the same state would that be a worst situation?

 

[golfgal]

This is going to vary from state to state, district to district. Your teaching time should transfer over but some schools will only give 1 year credit for every 2 years taught. This usually applies to yearly pay. Not a lot of school districts around here pay retiree health benefits.

 

[Tiggeroo]

also the question refers to pension

 

[golfgal]

In Minnesota your pension is statewide/state administered so no matter what district you are in, your pension goes to the same place and it accumulates that way. You can hop districts without it effecting your pension. I don't know if it works that way everywhere.

 

[disney junky]

I suspect that any in state teaching will apply towards your final years of service. I am in PA and they don't recognize out of state service, so if you transferred here, you'd probably lose those years. I have a year in NY I've been trying to get, and there is a lawsuit fighting for it but I don't have much hope. The years of service within a district and the years of teaching within a state are two totally different things. Just keep that in mind. I have 24 years taught, 22 years in the PA retirement system, but our contract only goes up to 18 years of service so I maxed out a couple years ago. Our local policy is that we accept half a teacher's years of service, so someone coming here with ten years would be given five years and placed on step five of our salary schedule. If it seems complicated, it really is. Here, some school districts have negotiated health care benefits for retirees, some have negotiated a supplemental, say $250 a month towards the cost, some give you one month paid for each year served, so someone who taught 30 years would get 30 months of health care paid. PA is weird because all contracts are negotiated at the local level. I think NJ is more county or state driven. Good luck.

 

[barkley]

here in california the bulk of the teachers belong to the 'pers' system (public employees retirement system) and for retirement all years working for a covered district is counted (and if you worked for an uncovered district you could buy that time up to a max of i think 5 years, they will even let you buy time you worked from another state with the right verifications).

i have a friend whose dd went the route you're looking at to help with student loans-she was realy surprised when she found that allot of desireable schools in the district near her home fell under the criteria-the entire district did'nt have to be deemed at risk, just the individual school, and there were some in her district that because of dropping test scores in recent years had fallen under that classification.

just as an aside-if you work for an employer that guarantees retiree health benefits long enough to be vested (around here it's 5 years) then decide to go somewhere else-realy think about leaving your retirement vested with the old employer and not rolling it into an ira or the new retirement system you'll be under. even if you wont retire for decades, if that employer is still providing med coverage to retirees by virtue of being vested you will be eligible to participate (dh worked for a gov. agency for 7 years in his early 20's then went on to another job-the only pension he will get from the original agency is about 200.00 per month BUT he can get life long (along with spousal and dependant children) med/dental/vision at the same rate people who retired out with 50 years of service pay).

 

[disney junky]

I forgot about the buying thing. That's what I am trying to do; buy my time from NY. Good point.